game face

...or how being a nerd taught me typography

I have had a lot of lessons in typography over the course of my life; not the really serious in-depth stuff they do on graphic design courses, I'm talking about things like being asked to draw the word COLD in a COLD way.  Before a certain summer holiday the penny had utterly failed to drop.  I did the lessons and enjoyed them then promptly forgot all about them the moment I stepped out the door.  

Then I invented a wrestling dice game (!).  

Now this game involved a lot of picking wrestler's names out of hats.  I got swiftly bored with seeing them in plain old print or my regular handwriting.  Instinctively I felt that the names themselves must represent the wrestlers they belonged to.  Kane had to have a big, majestic fiery name, of course, whereas William Regal needed something grand, pretentious yet ever so slightly duff.  Half way through I realised that I was doing exactly what I had been supposed to do in all those typography classes.  It was just that now I actually cared about it.  Also, for any teachers out there, it is worth noting that to attempt grand, pretentious yet ever so slightly duff in typography is a hell of a lot more interesting than trying to render cold  ^-^

Happy days!